Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

Embeth Davidtz has had a good career as an actor. I first became aware of her as Miss Honey in Danny DeVito's movie of MATILDA, in which she was warm and endearing without a trace of sentimentality -- quite an achievement. Next time I encountered her was in JUNEBUG in which presented a completely different but equally believable character. It was evident that she was a high-quality artist. But nothing could have prepared me for how brilliant she is as a mother at the end of her tether in this excellent movie. Not only that; she directed and co-wrote it.

Her major triumph as a director is to bring out from young Lexi Venter a tough and beguiling performance. The whole story is seen through her character's eyes, so everything rests on her, and she totally delivers under Ms Davittz's expert guidance.

The movie is based on a memoir by Alexandra Fuller, who is the film's co-writer with Ms Davitdz. It tells of Ms Fuller's experiences as a child observing the process of her settler-colonial parents and their neighbours facing up to (or, in most cases, not facing up to) the return of the land that had been acquired in what had been Rhodesia to the newly-independent nation of Zimbabwe. The counterpointing of the political and domestic in Ms Fuller's story is its great strength, and director Davidtz makes it the spine of the film.

There's terrific support from the whole cast, with a special shout out to Zihkona Bali as Sarah, a worker in the colonial household who finds herself at the centre of a storm.

I really can't recommend this film highly enough. Please see it.

The time period is around 1980, as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. It shows the effect of the political change on one farm family, plus the white and black communities around them.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Bobo, an 8-year-old girl. She shares her room with her teenage sister. Their father is a soldier, and can be on duty away from home for periods of time. The heart of the family is their mother, for whom their cattle farm is her life, even though she also is a part-time police desk officer. They have two black servants, Jacob and Sarah, and Bobo seems closer to Sarah than her own mother. While Bobo is fascinated by black culture, she has learned to treat all black people as an underclass.

Ironically, for the secondary characters, the relationships between the members of the black community are more murky than the relationships between the members of the white community.

At the start, the Bush War is still going on. Terrorists are killing whites, and mother sleeps with a gun by her side. We go to the 1980 election, where mother implores the blacks she knows to vote for "The Bishop" - a centrist politician. But when Marxist Mugabe wins, the whites have to decide whether to leave or to try and stick it out.

The film is based on a personal memoir from 2021. There is a disclaimer that, while based on actual events, there have been fictionalizations for dramatic reasons. The time line seems to have been compressed. The sister is hanging around the home all the time, with no indication that she is being home-schooled, so she should mostly be away in boarding school somewhere.

With that caveat, the film works. Bobo is a delight to watch, and writer / director / star (the mother) Embeth Davidtz does a good portrayal of someone who lives under multiple stresses.

I've read most of Fuller's books, including this titular one (which I've read twice). They present a view of Africa (as the other books move to different locales) that I've never encountered: people living on the wrong side of history, but unapologetically so. And this is where the book differs significantly from the film, with the result that the film is quite a different story from the book.

Fuller, in the memoir, presents her family's lives in a matter-of-fact way, aware of the Rhodesian Bush War and its dangers, particularly to Tim, the father. Since the memoir is retrospect, you get a rather adult colouring of Fuller's childhood. She is aware, too, of course, of the racism that permeates the country's politics; yet she is more interested in her family's hardscrabble efforts to make a living.

The film shifts this to a story that highlights and centres the racism that allowed the Fuller family (and other white families) the privileges (such as they were) they enjoyed. Thus, what I've pointedly called the Rhodesian Bush War in the book becomes, in the film, Zimbabwe War of Liberation. This tonal shift is perhaps unsurprising, as it would likely be impossible to adhere fully to Fuller's memoir given contemporary attitudes to the horrors of racism and colonialism.

What changes too is the point of view, from the memoir's retrospective adult to the film's seven-year-old's contemporary understanding. Initially, this threw me; but as the film progressed, and the information that Bobo takes in is the same information that you take in, the harsh, oppressive realities of a colonial way of life sink in.

Bobo's parents' attitudes, for example, certainly shape hers. In one scene, she orders around her Black African playmates until she is corrected by Sarah, a hired hand, who tells her that these children are her equals and not her servants. The neighbouring white families are depicted as low-class salacious slobs who refuse to understand the historical shift taking place; and while I realize that this may have been the case, the film pushes the point to the extent that none of the whites have any redeeming qualities, and this felt a bit off-kilter.

Nevertheless, the film is mostly flawless: acting, directing, cinematography, editing -- all brilliant, especially Lexi Venter as Bobo and Davidtz as the mother (and as director). These two should be up for major awards, along with the film itself. Highly recommended.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed all of Alexandra Fuller's (Bobo) non-fiction books, this film was inconsistent with the author's presentation of, well, everything. In the book her parents are written as free spirits who live life fully and while surely not traditional, are refreshing opposites of today's over- protective "helicopter" parents.

The film shows the very real lifelong wounds of a child growing up through the dangers of a war zone and is a strong reminder that resonates today. But the book also recognizes the values of living a life that allows experiences to teach us lessons of living with a passion for true freedom of expression.

In the book both views are beautifully interwoven without judgement and thankfully are not presented as what would be a false dichotomy.

This film shows a bleak view of the parents, the life, and only the spirit of wonderful little Bobo. Bobo's spirit comes from her parent's example and the film doesn't even hint at that.

Greetings again from the darkness. It might seem dangerous or even cruel to look at war through the eyes of a child. However, this time, it's a brilliant approach because most of the story is personal ... following the villagers on the edges of the Rhodesian Bush War - a Civil War meant to overthrow White colonialism and restore power to the local Black populace. Long admired for her acting career, Embeth Davidtz takes on the director's chair for the first time, and also adapted the screenplay from Alexandra Fuller's best-selling 2001 memoir.

It's 1980 in Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe) and a revolution is occurring, pending the upcoming election ... you are likely familiar with Robert Mugabe, long-time President and Prime Minister of the country. For this story, Bobo (stunning work from first time actor Lexi Venter) is our protagonist and narrator. She's a curious and observant 8-year-old with a free spirit and a constantly dirty face. The POV of a kid makes sense once you learn that director Davidtz had a childhood in South Africa with many similarities to what Bobo experiences (it is Alexandra Fuller's memoir after all).

Bobo's big sister Vanessa (Anina Hope Reed) and their mother Nicola (director Davidtz) share the home with Bobo. Dad is a soldier and is often away for extended periods of time. Nicola sleeps with a rifle and obsessively guards the family's farmland, while desperately hoping the Whites don't lose power in the country. Bobo spends a good amount of time with Sarah (Zikhona Bali), who becomes a pseudo-mother, filling the emotional gap left by Nicola's alcoholism, and brewing breakdown over the possible changes coming.

As you would expect, racism is on display here. It supports the theory that racism is passed down from generation to generation. Bobo is warned to "watch out for terrorists", which is another word for black Africans, while Sarah's husband Jacob (Fumani N Shilubana) is regularly warning his wife about getting too close to Bobo or being seen in public with the white girl. Bobo is blatantly told that Africans and Whites are not the same.

Watching young Bobo trying to make sense of the world can be uncomfortable to watch, yet it drives home the point about racism, violence, and growing up in a war. Sarah does her best to guide the youngster, but that parental force can be quite strong. Obviously, this was a personal film for first-time director Embeth Davidtz, and she shows the right stuff with her first feature film. We understand the family wanting to hold onto their land, while at the same time we witness how racism can be spread so easily ... and at such a young age.

Opening in theaters on July 18, 2025.